Vashti and her pa.
‘Shell! Oh, Shell!” she said, and she came right into my arms, and it seemed the natural thing to do.
Lander Owen seemed older, more tired. But he looked at me, grinning.
“Looks as if you stepped into a loop, boy.” ‘What are you doing here?” ‘I was hurt in a rock fall, and the doctor told me I should go to a warmer climate. I told him I thought I was heading there, and he said I shouldn’t wait until I died, but to go now. So we’re on our way.” “Con told us you were in Los Angeles,” Vashti said.
‘I’ll turn right around and go back,” I said.
The man with the badge had gone out, and only the stage driver was left. He had walked to the bar for a drink and was talking to the bartender.
“I was coming to look you up,” I said to Vashti and her pa.
“I’ve got my money back and I’m through with all that.” “You’re damned right you are!” Bob Heseltine was standing just inside the doorway, and he was all squared away to kill me.
“Get out of the way, Vash,” I said quietly.
‘I thought you’d gone, Bob,” I said. “I thought you’d quit.” ‘Like hell! I figured to, and then I got mad all over again and said I’ll be damned if I do!” ‘allyou’ve still got a chance, Bob.” I said.
The road is out there and you can ride. I don’t want anything from you.”…ally’ve played hell with me,” he said. The! Bob Heseltine! I should have killed you the first time I saw you!” “Your horse is out there, Bob. There’s no need for this now.” He was staring at me. “Why, damn I could pull my gun faster than you when I was six!” “Reese is going to make it, I think, Bob,” I said, still speaking quietly. “He had a good doctor and he was drinking lots of milk and taking it easy. And I saw Ruby back where you left her. She was cooking for the stage tender.” “Cooking? Her?” “That’s right. He went for his gun and I beat him My gun slid into my hand with an easy motion. I had no sense of hurry, no fear. This was the moment for which I had been preparing myself for a long time.
His hand went down, his at came up, and I shot him in the belly, shooting three times, as fast as I could slip the hammer, a steady roar bf sound, with no breaks.
Heseltine got off only one shot-ifito the floor.
He went to his knees, started to get up, then Just rolled over.
Tt was a moment, a long moment, before I could believe he was dead.
Suddenly the man with the badgeay to you.” “At least I didn’t fill you full of arsenic.
“That’s a lot of nonsense. Who could do that? Who would have any reason to?” “What about Ruby, Kid? Without you, she’d have Heseltine and the money, and with Bob ‘Are You crazy? Ruby? How could she? And anyway, she dotes on Bob. You’re trying to fill me with bad thoughts about my friends. You just wait until-was “How could she? I’ll lay you five to one she’s been making the coffee lately. And the kind of coffee we make out here is Poisonous enough without adding arsenic.
And I’ll bet she hasn’t been drinking much of it herself.” “That’s a damned lie! That’s-” His voice trailed off, and his brows drew together with sudden awareness.
“I don’t want you, Kid. I want my money, and I’m going to get it.” Deliberately, I sat down. Doc Macnamara looked at Reese, and then he said, “I know nothing about your troubles. There is arsenic in some of the water out here, but not enough to poison you the way you have it.
I would say-and I have had such cases before this-that you had been fed increasing doses over quite a period of time.” The doctor shrugged.
“However, I am surmising. I would have to perform an autopsy “Not on me, you don’t!” Suddenly Reese said, “Doc, am I going to get well?” “I think so. That is, if you don’t get any more of it.
This man is supposed to be your enemy, I believe, but if I were you I’d take his advice and never go near those people again.” He didn’t like it, but it was obvious that he believed us. He had believed me even before the doctor spoke, because evidently he remembered who had been making the coffee.
“I ain’t got any of your money,” he said, his tone surly.
“They’re takid care of it for me.” “I’ll bet,” I said dryly.
‘allyou think I’m a damn fool, don’t you?” he said.
“Nobody has a corner on being a fool, Kid. We were till fools back there in Texas when we stood around shooting off our mouths about how big and tough we were going to be. You two were fools when you tied in with Heseltine, and he was seven kinds of a fool for going to Ruby Shaw with that money.
I’ll bet she’s argued against you dividing it, all along.” “Maybe she has. That cuts no ice.” “What will you do when you get out of here, Kid? Go back to them?
Will you have the guts to warn Heseltine that he’ll be next?” Reese was silent. The doctor went into his office and began puttering over some papers.
“Where are they, Kid? I owe those folks back in Texas and I want to get my money.” Reese did not answer for a minute, then he said, “You’d go against Heseltine? You actually would?” “of course.” Even as I said it, I suddenly realized that I would do just that. A lot had happened to that boy who had left Texas on a cattle drive. And then I added, with sudden mmrise to realize it was true, ‘Bob Heseltine Will be more worried about facing me than I will about facing him.” He looked hard at me. comally figure you’ve put on some weight, don’t you?” But he didn’t sneer. I could see that Kid Reese believed it, too. “I won’t deny,” he added, ‘t Bob’s almost had his fill of you-you hangin” on his trail and all. He aiiyt sleepin’ so well any more.
Fact is, none of us have been.” He turned his eyes on me. “If I cut free of them, will you layoff me?” “I don’t want you, Kid. I never did. You knew that was our money and you knew that was our horse, but I just want the money back.” “What did those folks in Texas ever do for you?” “I take that back. They did for pa, which is the same u’ll find out that counts for a buying drirdo for a lot of rum-pots or shady women to show how big a man you are.” was Maybe you’re right. All right, I’ll tell you something.
Bob Heseltine’s got him a hide-out up back of Bridal Veil Falls, near Telluride.” “Where’s Telluride?” “It’s a new camp. A man named John Fallon staked some claims up there, and she looks like she’s going to boom.that was all I got out of bin, and I was not too sure Of that. He had no reason to tell me the truth, and enough reason to lie.
On the other hand, somebody had been feeding him arsenic, and perhaps he already knew what had happened to Doc Sites.
Two days I stayed on in Eureka, scouting the town, making inquiries.
Heseltine and Ruby had been in town, all right, but they had pulled out, headed east.
I switched horses and went after them, making good time. Several times I thought I was up to them, but each time it turned out to be some other people.
It was a wild and beautiful land through which I rode, but the trail was becoming crowded. Three times during the first day I passed freight outfits, and several riders passed me, as well as a stage going each way. It was getting so a man could scarcely ride five miles on that trail without seeing somebody.
In Utah I sold Zole’s horse, but I had become too attached to the dun and the grulla to let them go.
That day had been a cool one, and I was wearing a short thick wool coat when I rode up to the stage station.
It was getting on for evening and I was hunting a place to stay.
The station stood in the open without so much as a cottonwood tree nearby. just a stone corral, the stone house and the trail that bent in toward its door.
There was a water through and I rode up to it. A man peered from the doorway then came over.
“Howdy! Passin’ through?” “Maybe. Have you got some good food in there?” “Sort of. Fact is, I’ve got me a new cook, if she’ll stay.